Instead, they must appeal to God for guidance. Rather than seek success on earth, for the Spirit: "my ambition lies above." The Spirit replies to every temptation made by the Flesh with a reference to the world above. Although the two are sisters within the same human family, the Spirit is confident that she will triumph over the Flesh. Perhaps the most powerful imagery of the poem is the reversal of the conventional image of humankind as slaves of fleshy desire. When the Spirit triumphs: "When I am victor over thee, / and Triumph shall, with laurel head, / When thou my Captive shalt be led." Lest the reader think that the pull between love of the world and its beauties, and the pull to a higher calling was one that Bradstreet merely created for instruction, According to the Bradstreet critic and biographer Ann Woodlief, this inner conflict often tormented Bradstreet: "One must remember that she was a Puritan, although she often doubted, questioning the power of the male hierarchy, even questioning God (or the harsh Puritan concept of a judgmental God)....

Her love of nature and the physical world, as well as the spiritual, often caused creative conflict in her poetry. Though she finds great hope in the future promises of religion, she also finds great pleasures in the realities of the present, especially of her family, her home and nature (though she realized that perhaps she should not, according to the Puritan perspective).
Woodlief, "Biography of Anne Bradstreet," 2006) Puritanism in its most extreme forms was a world-denying religion, but Bradstreet's poetic gifts allow the reader to acknowledge the world's attractions, even while the Spirit wins out. The crown worn by the Spirit at the end of the poem is the crown of Christ, not the crown of a monarch.

Works Cited

Bradstreet, Anne. "The Flesh and the Spirit." WebBooks e-text. [26 Oct 2006] http://www.web-books.com/classics/Poetry/Anthology/Bradstreet/Flesh.htm

Woodlief, Ann. "Biography of Anne Bradstreet." The University of Toronto. [26 Oct 2006] http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Bradstreet/bradbio.htm